Leadership Reading to Start Your Week: 4/24/17

Here are choice articles on hot leadership topics culled from the business schools, the business press and major consulting firms, to start off your work week. I’m pointing you to articles about leadership, strategy, industries, innovation, women and work, and work and learning now and in the future. Highlights include mastering the three dimensions of growth in the digital age, the power of and, how swapping life stories can make you a better leader, fixing Big Data’s blind spot, focusing on what works for workplace diversity, why the future of robots is all too human, and why it’s time to redefine “work.”

Be sure to look for dots that you can connect.

Note: Some links require you to register or are to publications that have some form of limited paywall.

Industries and Analysis

“The business of property and casualty insurance—assessing risk, collecting premiums and paying claims—hasn’t changed much since 1861, when a group of underwriters sold the first policies to protect London homeowners against losses from fire. Recently, though, the insurance industry has embarked on a radical transformation, one spurred by a series of digital innovations whose widespread adoption is just a few years away. Bain & Company and Google have identified seven key technologies—namely, infrastructure and productivity, online sales technologies, advanced analytics, machine learning, the Internet of Things, distributed ledger and virtual reality—that have already begun to disrupt the industry and whose impact will accelerate in the next three to five years. These new technologies are likely to be a boon for consumers, bringing more choice, better service and lower prices.”

“A GLIMPSE into the future of retailing is available in a smallish office in Hamburg. From there, Otto, a German e-commerce merchant, is using artificial intelligence (AI) to improve its activities. The firm is already deploying the technology to make decisions at a scale, speed and accuracy that surpass the capabilities of its human employees.”

“When you’re ready to incorporate artificial intelligence technologies in your business, the analysis you should perform is this: What can possibly go wrong? What is our product or service expected to do? What happens if it fails to do so? Do we have a damage mitigation plan?”

Women and the Workplace

“Organizations need to focus their engagement and retention strategies toward women. And I’m not just saying that because I’m a woman. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, women represent 51.5 percent of all professional and managerial jobs. And a large percentage of these women are also working mothers. So, if businesses are saying to themselves, ‘Where can we have the most impact?’, it only seems logical and good business sense to consider the largest group.”

“The annual performance review already has many strikes against it. Harried managers end up recalling high and low points on the fly; employees often get unclear direction. Here’s another flaw: Women are shortchanged by these reviews.”

Work and Learning Now and in the Future

“Since 2000, the US has lost 5 million manufacturing jobs. Some say that the loss is due to foreign competition, primarily from China. Others say that it is due to higher productivity from automation and factories simply don’t need as many workers. Historically, those two trends, globalization and automation, have reinforced each other. Yet a study by Boston Consulting Group suggests that they are starting to diverge.”

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